Tag Archives: beer

Here’s the reason the Tory fuss over fake Rishi Sunak ‘pint’ pic is hilarious

Not quite right: this image has been photoshopped to make it seem the pint of ‘Black Dub’ was badly-poured by Tory leader Rishi Sunak. The giveaway should have been the look in the eyes of the woman behind him, which is comedy – as is the response of the Conservative Party that once re-modelled its entire press office to convey lies about a previous party leader.

When Labour MP Karl Turner tweeted (can we still use that word, now that platform has been reduced to a letter ‘X’?) an image of Rishi Sunak, apparently having poured a pint of real ale very badly, handing it across a bar – to apparent shock from a woman behind him – who could have predicted the squeal of outrage from Conservative Central HQ?

It seems the image is a fake and the Tories were scandalised that somebody had used it to lie about their leader.

Who knew that the only people now permitted to lie about their leader are the Tories themselves?

What?

That’s not how it is?

But, but, but… the Tories do lie about their leaders – all the time! If you don’t recall, perhaps these words will jog your memory: “Factcheck UK.”

I wrote about this at the time – which was during the 2019 general election campaign.

During a televised leader debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn on ITV, CCHQ’s press office spontaneously re-branded itself as “Factcheck UK” in order to whitewash anything Johnson said, in the hope that the voting public would be gullible enough to believe it.

Very few people were – as I reported:

The Conservative Party seems to be getting desperate.

Its press office resorted to the dirty trick of pretending to be a ‘fact check’ organisation during the ITV leaders’ debate – presumably so it could tweet a (false) claim that Boris Johnson won the confrontation.

Well, that didn’t work!

Not only did people take extreme offence at the pretense…

… but they also decided to have their own laugh at the Tories’ expense.

Take a look at some of these examples:

 

Way to go, Tories. Not only did your man mess up his big TV appearance…

But you’ve also ensured that nobody will believe another word to come out of your publicity machine.

And now they’ve just reminded us that they lie, constantly and compulsively.

That’s probably not a good idea when they’re trying to win the public debate over global warming.

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Starmer ‘rule breach’ looks like Tory mud-slinging ahead of local vote

Keir and the beer: but isn’t the real question what the person who took the image thought they were doing? VoyeurGate, anybody?

Did Keir Starmer have a bottle of beer in a Durham MP’s constituency office last year?

Yes.

Was it against the rules at the time?

Probably not. There isn’t really enough information to be sure.

Skwawkbox has provided a handy list of the rules here – and that site considers Starmer to have broken the rules.

But the BBC takes a more nuanced view.

Labour itself says Starmer was at the office of City of Durham MP Mary Foy for an online event ahead of the Hartlepool by-election – a neighbouring constituency. As pubs were closed, getting take-out food was the logical course of action.

Rules in force at the time said people should work from home if they could. It could be argued that this was an occasion in which working from home was not possible – and there was an exemption for “work purposes”. There were no specific rules for meals at work events or for socialising at them.

Durham police have investigated and said they were satisfied that no rules were broken.

That wasn’t enough for North West Durham Tory MP Richard Holden. He argued that “this location was not the usual workplace” of Sir Keir, and there was “no necessity” for him to attend the event.

Really? If it was billed as an online rally with Keir Starmer and Mary Foy, then it was probably reasonable for him to attend, and if it was organised by Ms Foy’s constituency party, then it was probably reasonable for him to attend it there.

And now there’s a question about Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner attending – which, again, is probably neither here nor there, considering the restrictions described above.

So on balance, This Site tends to agree (for possibly the first time!) with Starmer: “We’re a few days away from local elections, and Conservative MPs are trying to throw as much mud as possible.”

There isn’t any correspondence with the so-called Partygate scandal because the Downing Street gatherings were social events. Boris Johnson was fined for attending a party, not a work event.

So this issue is nothing more than a distraction – and a shot in the foot for the Tories.

That’s because, by concentrating on alleged lockdown rule-breaking, the Tories are focusing attention on their own wrongdoing more than anybody else’s. Their prime minister has been caught breaking those rules; Starmer is only accused.

And the simple there are far worse failings in Keir Starmer’s Labour Party that the Tories could be exploiting.

What surprises This Writer is that either party is anywhere at all in the polls. Other political organisations should be walking all over them while they squabble about this.

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Image of #BorisJohnson with beer at #lockdown birthday party prompts more resignation demands

Boozy Johnson: this is the image everybody is using to illustrate the story about Boris Johnson being pictured with a beer at his birthday party in the Cabinet Office on June 19, 2020 – while the rest of us were stuck in our homes on lockdown. It was actually taken in 2019.

The lies keep being found out, don’t they?

After Boris Johnson was revealed to have attended a birthday party for him in the Cabinet Office on June 19, 2020, when the UK was locked down and all indoor social gatherings were illegal, Downing Street defended him.

“He was there for less than 10 minutes,” a spokeswoman said.

It has now been alleged that Sue Gray has handed the police an image of Johnson holding a can of Estrella beer, taken towards the end of that party, when few people were there, and strangely Downing Street suddenly has nothing to say.

The picture was, apparently, taken by Johnson’s official taxpayer-funded photographer who was said to be documenting the event.

So it seems logical for the police to call in Andrew Parsons (the photographer) and check the data on his camera to find out when the images were taken and how long Johnson was really at the event.

Meanwhile, claims by MPs like Conor Burns that Johnson was “ambushed by a cake” are being disowned – Johnson said he didn’t have one and it seems none of the 300 party images Ms Gray has handed to the police show any cake at all.

Downing Street may be tight-lipped about the situation but former Tory schools minister Nick Gibb hasn’t; he’s the latest MP to submit a letter of “no confidence” in Johnson to the chair of their backbench 1922 committee.

Writing in the Telegraph he said his constituents were “furious about the double standards” and that “to restore trust, we need to change the prime minister”.

He said Covid restrictions imposed by Johnson were “flagrantly disregarded” in Downing Street, and the PM was inaccurate when, in December, he told the House of Commons there was no party.

“Some argue that eating a few canapes with a glass of prosecco is hardly a reason to resign. But telling the truth matters, and nowhere more so than in the House of Commons where, like a court of law, truth must be told regardless of the personal consequences,” he wrote.

His resignation call follows – and endorses – that of Aaron Bell, who on Monday (January 31) asked if Johnson took him for a fool for following the rules himself – including not hugging his family at his grandmother’s funeral, or going for a cup of tea after the service.

In a statement he published on Twitter, Mr Bell said he had written his “no confidence” letter on January 12 but only submitted it yesterday (February 4) after speaking with local councillors and candidates in his constituency:

He said he “could not square the Prime Minister’s words from the despatch box with his previous statements to the House before Christmas. Subsequently I have also struggled to reconcile assurances given directly to me with the implications of Sue Gray’s interim findings.”

He added: “The breach of trust that the events in No 10 Downing Street represent, and the manner in which they have been handled, makes his position untenable.”

Source: Bombshell picture shows Boris Johnson holding can of beer at lockdown birthday party – Mirror Online

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